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25th July 2017

The venue for Society meetings has changed and the directions to it given on p. 126 of the July 2017 issue are incorrect. Meetings are held at the Hall of St. Botolph’s Church, Bishopsgate, London EC2M 3TL. The Hall is set in a small garden behind the church, less than 2 minutes’ walk from Liverpool St. mainline and underground stations.

This week's offering is a twomover helpmate, with two solutions. Writing in the book
The Chessboard Adventures of Norman Macleod, Chris Feather describes it as
“a remarkable achievement”, which it certainly is! Remember that Black
moves first in a helpmate!

The two solutions are:

1.Rxd5 Bh7 2.Rd4 Rc5#
1.Bxf5 Bf6 2.Bd3 Rg5#

In each case, a white rook is captured, in order to allow the other white rook to pass
through and give the mate. Chris Feather, who certainly knows about such things, describes
this idea as “almost an impossibility in a helpmate”. As he also points
out, it is true that “the motivation of the moves is unequal, but this
remains a remarkable achievement”.

Any comments or questions on this problem should be addressed to
Steve Giddins (our Libarian and Archivist) using the 'Contact'
item in the menu on the left.